O’Reilly: NBC Hasn’t Covered Story They Broke

Bill O’Reilly delivered one of his more bizarre and counter-factual diatribes on his TV show about the Obama drone strike program, claiming that NBC is not covering the story — unlike Bush and torture, which they covered in great detail, he claims. Speaking with Bob Beckel on his show, he said this:

“Remember the outcry over waterboarding? You know, everybody jumping up and down? NBC News, I thought they were going to, like, melt down over there. You heard anything on NBC about the drones?”…

“So you haven’t heard anything over about this, and neither have I. Neither has my staff. Okay? So we haven’t heard anything. But we heard a lot about waterboarding, but nothing about drone strikes. How do you process that?”

Beckel, whose spine has been removed in order to keep cashing Fox News checks, doesn’t bother to point out one little obvious fact: The entire story of the drone strike memo was broken by Michael Isikoff of NBC News, and it was done on the Rachel Maddow show. Maddow has reported on the drone strikes many times over the years. Nothing goes in, stupid comes out — I can explain that.

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

Sooooo… Let me get this straight, O’Reily thinks that Obama’s use of drones ass an assassination tool is as immoral as Bush’s torture policies?

Oh wait, of course not! He laudes them both! He just thinks its another example of “liberal hypocrisy” as if everyone who voted for Obama (as if we had much of a choice given his competitor) agrees with him on everything,

uzza

Ahh, so it’s not your soul you sell to the devil, it’s your spine. Makes a lot of sense.

It’s the First Law of Republican Holes: When you’re in a hole, everyone not in the hole is an enemy.

pacal

What is fascinating is that almost certainly O’Reilly would be defending the whole program and complaining about it being covered by the media if a Republican President was doing it.

But then since it is being done by Democratic President perceived by so many Republicans and Tea Baggers as the Antichrist, the great Satan, Lord of the Flies etc., O’Reilly is outraged.

scienceavenger

I think I can help Bill out here. To know if NBC is talking about something, you have to actually watch NBC. If all you do is talk to people who watch Fox and read Townhall all day, yes it’s unlikely any of them have heard NBC talking about anything. This is the problem.

But as to the actual argument, fuck you Bill and your false equivalence. Torture and drone strikes are two entirely different issues. One’s about interrogation techniques, the other about assassinating perceived enemies of the state. It’s quite possible for a person to support one and not the other without shedding their intellectual integrity. Ah, I see your problem…

brucegee1962

When the drone story came out, I was wondering if we might see something unheard of in American politics — an alliance between the far left and the far right. The left hates the drones because they spit in the face of everything we believe makes this country great, and the right would hate them because, well, Obama.

Apparently not. Apparently we’re just going to have the spectacle of the left jumping up and down and shaking their fists, and the right leaning back and saying “Oh, if you were really angry you’d be jumping higher and shaking harder.”

PatrickG

It’s the First Law of Republican Holes: When you’re in a hole, everyone not in the hole is an enemy.

I am so stealing this.

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About the Author

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. Read More...